<p>I'm going to be a Senior in high school this year, and it will be my 3rd season of swimming for a high school team. I also swim with a club team, and race competitively in multisports (triathlon, duathlon, etc.) and running. I am extremely successful in triathlons (times very close to elite/national level, and often place very close to elites).</p>
<p>However, my high school coach (swimming) and I are having a bit of a falling out. She doesn't help my stroke at all (ignores me at practice), and there are a few other disputes that have gone on in the past. (Said I was academically ineligible to compete... I'm a perfect attendance, straight-A, honors student. And despite showing her paperwork as proof, it took until the last minute for her to change her decision to let me compete). Also, it's extremely time-consuming and I don't feel like I'm accomplishing anything in our HS meets (seems to ALWAYS put me in off-events, and is very surprised with my performance when she puts me in my better events). And then there's some other (more personal) situations with her.</p>
<p>I am also intending to start my first (and only) year of X-Country. (I'm a fast runner- the coach has seen me run and has been trying to convince me to run for him. I'm finally doing it this year)</p>
<p>I am very tempted to quit High School swimming. I do (and still plan to) compete and train with my year-round swim club (The coach is amazing- very detailed attention to stroke, useful but challenging sets, and goes over every detail after every race).</p>
<p>Here's my question: Would it be bad for college to quit swimming this last year? Or should I suck it up and stick with it one more year? I still will swim with my year-round team. I intend to swim DIII in college (I've done time comparisons with my top college's results, and I can swim their times).</p>
<p>Hello,
The D111 coach will be interested in your times, not if you swim in high school or with a club team.Many swimmers do not swim for their high schools due to schedule conflicts with practices/meets. If it comes up at an interview just explain that your coach was a stickler for you attending her team practices and you had to make a choice between your year long club team or the school and your priorities lied with the club team as it does with many competitive swimmers throughout USA swim programs.
Good luck with your search, my son is beginning his college search as well.</p>
<p>I quit HS swimming and it was one of the best decisions of my life. As long as you stick with club, they really don’t care. I have a friend on full ride to UIllinois for soccer who quit the HS team after freshman year. P.S. you’ll love XC, it’s great!</p>
<p>This is a very interesting situation, one that I have a unique perspective on. My daughter is also a swimmer, former triathlete and is now rowing. I am also a swim coach and most recently was head coach for a high school team. I will address this from the coach perspective. I can’t speak to the personal issues that you have with the high school coach nor to her competency, but I can tell you that high school swimming is different than club swimming. High school swimming is a TEAM sport. High school coaches are often criticized for not putting club swimmers in their “best” events. What I tryed to explain to my club sprinters, often the hotshot sprinters, is that I had a team comprised of mostly high school swimmers. I usually only had a handful of kids who were capable of swimming certain events, like the 200 IM, 500 Free and 100 Fly, particularly early in the season. My goal for the team was to win meets. The best way to win meets is to have a full heat of swimmers in each event, even if my best 50 free swimmer is a few seconds slower than my hotshot club swimmer. I needed the club swimmers to swim the events that I needed them to swim so I could fill the lanes in all events. This strategy works well for the team and not so well for the individual. But remember, high school swimming is a team sport. And most coaches will put their club swimmers in their best events for championship meets, unless they are blessed to have a team with many fast, competitive swimmers. In that case, the swimmers are put in events based on their ability to score points. By the way, this is exactly how it works in college also. The coach’s job is to win meets, not develop a group a individual athletes. </p>
<p>As far as cross country, is this in the same season as swimming? If so, can you work with the coaches to allow you to compete in both sports? Obviously, cross country will help you in your multisports endeavor. And it might take some of the pressure off you for high school swimming. In any case, I would make every effort to continue swimming for your high school. Not swimming as a senior will certainly be a red flag to college coaches. There are many olympians who have continued to swim with their high school teams. They probably did not have olympic caliber coaches as their high school coach, but they make it work. I’m sure you can also. I also suggest you talk to your club coach, she/he may be able to advise you better, having more knowledge of the situation. </p>
<p>Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>I’ve talked to my club coaches and one of them can’t stand my high school coach (they had a major falling out and don’t get along at all) and thinks I’d be better off sticking with just year-round and XC Senior year, with a focus on qualifying and performing well at nationals in triathlon. The other coach thinks I should try to stick with HS, and drop it as necessary. </p>
<p>BTW, I would not be the first swimmer that quit swimming for my HS team. There have been quite a few (very talented) swimmers who quit because of major issues with the coach.</p>
<p>XC is the same season as swimming, and they’re practices conflict (exact same time). Two years ago, there was a senior who did both swimming and XC and both coaches agreed that he would rotate between practices every other day, with some modification around the time of the championship meets. This athlete was my swim coach’s pet and could get away with absolutely anything- including a legal situation- and still remain his position as swim team captain. My take is that I’ll stick with the swim team given that the swim coach allows me to rotate between XC and swimming practices. Also, we’ll see how XC competition goes. At the moment, my times certainly put me as a regional qualifier and potentially a state qualifier. If it looks like I’ll be pretty successful in XC, I may just drop HS swimming and stick with XC and club.</p>
<p>Fishymom- your comment about dropping swimming senior year as a red flag for coaches is what I was looking for. That’s what I want to avoid. We’ll see how it plays out… if the XC, as well as a few other personal issues, continue to heat up, I may end up quitting.</p>
<p>Just a quick update-</p>
<p>It’s looking more and more like I’ll quit HS swimming. Issues with the coach only escalated yesterday. Now it’s more of a matter of quitting because I don’t want to be closely affiliated with the HS coach rather than HS swimming being unhelpful.</p>
<p>as long as you dedicate yourself to club swimming and your club coach can attest to the fact that you ARE a team player, quitting the high school team shouldn’t really affect you. I both swim and run xc and track, and college coaches that I’ve talked to about swimming haven’t questioned me at all about why I don’t swim for my HS team anymore, they care much more about my times and what my club coach tells them about my attitude/work ethic. good luck, and I hope xc goes well!</p>